American extremism

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The United States is divided politically, and the left and right sides are fighting it out. People are having civil debates innocently in coffee shops, in the car, on campus and many end in yelling. With the close of the 2016 election, political tensions have flared and there are people so deeply entrenched in their beliefs, that they would be willing to cause harm to someone just for holding opposing views.

The source of political violence in this country is not from the average person. This violence stems from people so deep-set in their beliefs they are physically willing to fight for them. These extremists are part of groups with dangerous views. Communists, Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and Anti-fascists are the biggest players in the war of the extremes. It may seem overwhelming or downright scary that this country is experiencing this type of political volatility, but then one takes a look at the numbers. Only an estimated four percent (New York Post) of America’s population identifies with the white supremacist or “far right” group, and only about six percent (The Blaze) of the population identifies with the “far left” ends of the political spectrum. If only ten percent of the nation identifies with extremist groups, then why do these groups seem so much larger than they are? The simple answer is the amount of attention the media gives them. They also seem bigger because of their ability to use small, yet violent, crowds to disrupt large and peaceful ones. An example would be a peaceful protest planned for Aug 28, 2017, at UC Berkeley, a college in California. It was a “No to Marxism in America” rally. Nearby, another peaceful rally was scheduled called, “Rally against Hate”. Both groups advocated peacefully until more than 100 Anti-fascist members showed up and confronted anti-communists. A large fight ensued resulting in multiple arrests and injuries.

“The fact that a few hundred people were able to instigate a fight against a larger and peaceful group is disturbing,” said junior Alexander Pena.

The “far right” has had their share of violence as well. The usual plans are organized attacks on pre-selected targets, such as Irish Republican bombings or Ku Klux Klan lynching, but in Charlottesville , V.A., that all changed. A rally held by the “far right” was in very close proximity to the University of Virginia and its multiple campuses. Colleges and universities are the operating points for the “far left”, which creates a recipe for disaster. The two sides could not anticipate or prepare properly for each other’s violence and tactics. This created monstrous fights and the attack caused a young woman to lose her life. The riots in Charlottesville were a wake-up call to everyone. The two sides are boiling over, and it is only a matter of time before they get to the point of being a major threat to the United States.

To be frank, the “far left” and “far right” are like the two delinquent kids in a class full of well-behaved children. The parallels are uncanny. They fight and cause disturbances in an orderly environment, get extremely heated over the smallest things and throw tantrums when they do not get their way. We should treat them like the children they are and discipline them, within constitutional rights, and start degrading their ideologies and give them less attention.

“If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man,” said former president of the United States Ronald Reagan (deceased).

The irony of the matter is that the new generations are taking more of a liking to anti-American ideas, blaming their problems on the generations that guaranteed those rights in blood, fighting against true opponents of freedom and America. Taking a look into America’s history, it has always had internal struggles against itself and national ideas. New generations should not fear the future because true American values are still the core of America, no matter the interpretation of them.

The political extremists all have a common goal: the fall of democracy to be replaced with their twisted ideology. These people make up a small portion of the population, but the media inflates their numbers by means of giving them more attention than they deserve. The problem is here and will always exist with free thought, their futures and prominence are determined by us, the media and our willingness to allow their power.